| Author | Message | ||
     frank bascombe Member Username: Frankb Post Number: 287 Registered: 01-2007 |
For anyone in the UK. DO any of you know a good place to get vinyl, I remember some mentioning Swansea in relation to vinyl but not certain. There are a few LP I'd like to get on vinyl. Comments would be welcome | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 2275 Registered: 05-2005 |
me too, i'd like to know. though i think you'll always be able to amazon or ebay vinyl jerry, though you can't beat browsing can you? yet another thing that was so cool, on the defuckincline... | ||
| Catherine Vaughan Member Username: Catherine Post Number: 420 Registered: 05-2005 |
I haven't been there for a few years, but there was a great place in Edinburgh called Backbeat, near Clerk st. As far as I know it's still there, if that's any use to you. A friend told me about the place, and it's owner, a guy called Dougie, a hairy beardy music fanatic. First time I went there, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven! It was stacked floor to ceiling with vinyl, so packed, they were even in crates all about. And Dougie seemed to know what was in every one. I wanted to run away from my boring 9-5 life to work there, just to be paid in vinyl. | ||
| joe Member Username: Dogmansuede Post Number: 418 Registered: 07-2006 |
go to brighton frank and let loose. manc is pretty great too.....try "vinyl revival". i came back with 9kg excess luggage because of the amount i gathered over there! | ||
| frank bascombe Member Username: Frankb Post Number: 289 Registered: 01-2007 |
Thanks everyone, I'll head in to manchester but was pretty certain there was some where on line I might take a trip to Edinburgh after that recommendation Catherine-cheers. Joe I was in a similar situation 10 years ago actually more like 15 when I came back from Zwimbabwe with 10 LPs in my back pack for 6 weeks-they get very heavy!! | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 2296 Registered: 05-2005 |
I want to find somewhere where I can actually buy vinyl and cd's. Somewhere I can buy old Scott Walker albums on vinyl, somewhere where I can buy the entire back catalogue of Simon Fisher Turner on CD, somewhere where i can tak to someone in the shop about good fu*kin music, somewhere where I can find some good dub collections, somewhere who'll have a copy of the Japanese version of From across the kitchen table (which features the original UK versions of the songs rather than a couple of poxy 80's remixes) and at a reasonable price rather than having to ponce around for a week bidding against plebs on ebay gum!, somewhere where i can buy a mug with Frank Sinatra's face on it, somewhere where I can browse the sleeve notes of old Neil young abums, somewhere where I can listen to an an obscure Leo Kottke abum and share a coffee with someone and chat about Josef K, somewhere where I can rifle through the inceredible artwork vinyl collections of the entire el records back catalogue, somwhere I can pick up a L.O.V.E. photocopied fanzine, a place where I can buy old Creation records obscurities and t-shirts with Lawrence's face on them, a place where the guy who runs the record shop is actually interested one of my many purchases and doesn't turn his nose up if I only buy one cheap Nick Lowe or Horace Andy reissue, a place where the vinyl smell hits you when you walk in the shop, a place where you can hear teenagers getting excited coz they are gonna purchase Marquee moon with their hard earned paper round money, somehwhere I can take me kids, to look and browse at the record sleeves and not be deafened, by fuc*in shite computer Wii games blasting through the Bose speaker systems, powerful enough to rig up the 02 arena, somewhere where the loudmouthed, know it all (someties funny) Cartel or Nine Mile rep, butts in on my conversation with the shop guy whilst enquiring when the remastered Robert Forster album Danger in the past is coming out. That's all. I'm old, it shows! | ||
| joe Member Username: Dogmansuede Post Number: 426 Registered: 07-2006 |
spence: choose life? (that was such a good read first thing in the morning!) | ||
| XY765 Member Username: Judge Post Number: 489 Registered: 01-2006 |
Most of the music I've bought recently has been on vinyl, I think I've got the bug again! It started with the reissuing of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot by Wilco on vinyl, I bought A Ghost Is Born soon after that. Then I got 4 Spoon albums and a few Silver Jews on vinyl, some of them have come with codes for digital download which really is the way forward for vinyl sales. All of these records were reasonably priced and arrived in good condtion from Europe and the US. It's good to have sides again! | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 1421 Registered: 10-2004 |
Spence - you need to come to the Bay Area. Not that you could find all of those things in *one* shop, but probably many of those things/experiences scattered across several shops. Are genuine record shops really that scarce in the UK? They more or less remain alive and well in some of the larger metropolitan areas in the US. We've definitely lost a few great shops here in the Bay, but at least we've still got Amoeba and smaller stores like Mod Lang (owned/run by a nice English guy and his wife). It's been about 8 years since I was last in LA, but I remember there being about 3-4 exceptional record shops scattered about the area. Kind of a goldmine, actually (albeit a bit pricier than up here in SF). But yeah, nothing beats browsing for LPs in a decent shop. I'll buy stuff online if I absolutely can't find it in the shops, but that's definitely not as fun. And I still buy vinyl whenever I can. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 2659 Registered: 05-2005 |
To be honest Jeff, in Birmingham (my area), the genuine record shops were OK, but just OK. Swordfish is till there, the original Lilac ime LP cam out on Swordfish, run by the same guys for 25 years, Plastic factory was good, now gone, but really my ref above would be the London or Manchewste based indies. Those were the ones that stocked stuff, everything, you didn't always getthat in Birmingham, unfortunately. I think Factory had something to do with the balance of shops in Manchester being of a more substatntial quality, and poss Rough Trade etc in London. The one thing that UK had that was good, and may still be fairly good is record fairs. Basically events, featuring record sellers from around the world gathering up at major cities, to sell their shit. I haven;t been to one for years, butt hey made for great browsing, bit like gigantic secondhand record stores, tho most new sellers are CD only, but much cheaper than the high street. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 1422 Registered: 10-2004 |
Spence, I used to go to a lot of record fairs or "conventions" back in the 90s. They'd usually be hosted by various college radio stations in the area, held in huge auditoriums on whatever campus the radio station belonged to. Those were super fun, sometimes. I remember one at UC Berkeley at which I stumbled on the Part Company and Hammer the Hammer 7"s, the 78-90 videos (on VHS, of course), and Only Fun in Town on vinyl. Now *that* was a successful day at the record fair. But over time they just got to be too expensive, and I swear, for a while crazy bidding on ebay auctions ebay was pushing up the prices of some of those rarer albums, and sellers at the record fairs would crank up their prices accordingly. Sadly, ebay kinda took the place of record fairs. It was like, why bother waiting for the next record fair when you can probably just find that original postcard 7" on ebay this week? So, yeah, I kinda miss record fairs, too. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 2660 Registered: 05-2005 |
cool jeff! only fun in town, man, you just have to have the vinyl, to smell the era!!! and the treble!!! actualy, weddell's bass on that album sounds quite similar to Noel Redding from hendrix trio. i really hope that vinyl is arond for the next 50 years, we need it, in these times of greed, petulance and corruption of humnaity and animals, 180grammes of pure delight bruthas!! | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 1784 Registered: 03-2005 |
What I love about vinyl is Side One and Side Two, as XY mentioned up above. Just five or six songs, sequenced for maximum effect. There's always something to wake you up for the first track on each side--or if not, then to set the mood. If it's a good album there's always a meaty follow-up for track two on Side One. Track two on Side Two on the other hand can be something adventurous that the listener had to be "softened up" for first by listening to Side One. Track four on either side is usually something that adds texture to the program unless you already did that with track three. But it's best for track three on Side Two to be an almost-single to pull the listener back after challenging with track two! And the last song on each side is a coda of sorts, or if not maybe an epilogue. I really miss the art of programming record sides. You can still do that with 10 songs but it's not quite as good and with 15 it simply does not happen. I never really had much in the way of memorable human interaction in record stores, except for Pooh Bah's in Pasadena, a great little store in a house. But I confess I haven't been in years because of the semi-instant gratification of the internet. I should be given electroshock for that. But so many people I listen to are hard enough to locate online. In Amoeba Hollywood I'll go with a wish list and find none of it. | ||
| Ewan Talisker McEwan Member Username: Ewan_mcewan Post Number: 428 Registered: 02-2008 |
I dissent. I do understand and appreciate all of the romantic aspects wrapped up with listening to vinyl, actual "albums". I've been there and done that, felt the thrills - the camaraderie, the sublime moment when you peeled the plastic off a new LP and it was great, sublime. But, and this is strictly speaking for me, they are just way too big a pain in the arse for me now. Too big a hassle to play, you have to tiptoe around the room so you don't make the needle jump, and you have to get up to flip the fecking thing over. Personally, I'm waiting for the chip they implant in your brain, so they can just transmit everything directly to your brain. Why pollute your fellow citizen's airspace with actual soundwaves. But seriously, I've never had a "eureka moment" with the sound of LPs, despite endless protestations about the superiority of the listening experience and despite hearing them on some pretty stellar equipment. Also, despite having a lot of fun collecting them, with plenty of moments like those described above, my album experienes weren't all butterscotch pie in those halcyon days. About half of the ones I bought were warped, for one thing. And if you liked the fecking thing at all, you'd end up playing it a lot, as would all your stoned friends, with the end result being that it'd be irredeemably scratched, worn out, or skip like a MF. And the final straw for me was trying to move the little shits. Hernia city - I'm still wearing a truss from the last time I moved! I now have a grand collection of about 6 albums... | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1206 Registered: 09-2006 |
A small, fading, part of me is reluctant to agree, but a larger part is right there with you. When I lost my 2,000+ records it was hard for a little while but actually felt like more of a relief as time went by. And the adjustment was hardly horrible. I'm still oldschool in that I like to have some sort of hardcopy, be it CD or CD-R (because if your computer and/or Ipod dies, there goes your music) but I'm listening to 16LL on the computer as I type these words and I haven't had one single wistful thought of my old vinyl copy. | ||
| Andreas Severins Member Username: Andreas_severins Post Number: 34 Registered: 11-2007 |
At the end of august I could meet Dan Treacy in cologne at the gloria and was able to chat around with him for more than 1 1/2 hours. That was possible for me because I had some old vinyl copies of the very first TVP's (7"es and albums) with me. His manager mike told me that he can not imagine that dan would talk to anyone because he is a shy guy. But than he wanted to have a look at my vinyl and when he saw the records (many that he has never seen before) he asked me to wait. And dan really came. He is such a wonderful person. I offered him a beer, he looked thru the records and he signed them all to me. But signing is the wrong word - he painted pictures for me and signed!!! Many of the records the man himself hasn't seen for years including the handpainted 1982 whaam! release of mummy, that he put a nice painting on the plain back of the album that he signed me!! That is vinyl, man. I like the idea of releasing vinyl with a link for downloading the album... good day to you guys, andreas. | ||
| frank bascombe Member Username: Frankb Post Number: 382 Registered: 01-2007 |
Can get a bit of vinyl in HMV but the best store around here is Action Records which is full of hidden delights though i still can't always understand the categories and who is in what, they also have a 2 racks of new vinyl.Picadilly Records in Manchester is great. I've bough most of my vinyl this year: EC-Momofuku, FleetFoxes, Bon Iver and the Evangelist from Diverse Vinyl in South Wales. Often the new vinyl comes with a code to download the MP3 copy which is a great idea. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 2662 Registered: 05-2005 |
Andreas!! Great story, DT is an icon maaaan! And yes, that is vinyl, be a bit bloody difficult getting Dan to sign a bleedin memory stick!!, (imagine Howard Devoto signing my copy of Secondhand Daylight in memorey schtick format, Jesus Christ! no way man, it needs to be on the inside scrawled massive in a big fat marker, that's the way it should be, that's the way it is in fact!) or even virtual thin air!! I also love the fact that vinyl is big, its cumbersome, its grabbing your attention, its a pain in the arse, its saying come on you mtherfu8er play me!!, ride me!! and enjoy, fuc* cd's and mp3's, and bloody fash drives (they're anything but fash), all music is now hidden, in fact i'll hiode whilst paying it, the vinyl revolution starts her...maybe not, buet, erm, I like your idea Andreas (are all records lables doing this now?), all vinyl releases with free download, that is the retro way to go forward guy, great idea, lets all write to the record companies. Shit they're all gone. Uh, ok, I'll release stuff, that'll do!!!! For sound quality addicts, there's always been this record vs cd thing, for donkeys years, I think it got quite anal. I have heard a £200 turntable play an LP, sit next to a £200 CD player and play the same album on CD. The vinyl won hands down I am afraid to say. The whole thing was how you expect music to be heard. With body and soul and not tinny and thin. | ||
| andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 680 Registered: 04-2006 |
all in all i think i like the good old vinyl more than cd's. the covers, the magic of pulling out that black gold and put it on the record player, that silent spinning, that 20 minutes thing of each side that randy describes perfectly. but what first matters is the music and not the format. and if i can only get the music on cd i will surely buy this. nevertheless i prefer to buy old stuff rather on vinyl than on cd. that is my spleen in that vinyl/cd case. if i buy new stuff i have to say that most of the new releases on cd i buy are pretty well done. great booklets, digicases and so on, like the new The Sea and Cake album, simple hardcover (and beautiful looking), but like that good old foc and with a inner sleeve similar like in the vinyl era. or the fleet foxes cd. well done, that. yes, and it would be great if all companies would release vinyl with a downloading link, but unfortunately only some of them do this. sounds all a bit confused. special greetings to kev. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 2387 Registered: 05-2005 |
I still buy some vinyl every year, but most of what I buy and play is on CD. I have a decent Sony record player (bought after the Technics wheel of steel gave up the ghost) and I like playing stuff on it, especially 7"s, but it's a rare pleasure. |